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Is your content ready to mobilize?

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The mobile Internet marks the biggest change in content consumption since the 1980s, when PCs boomed. Marketers need to prepare.

Consider: Half of Americans use a smartphone today. And more Americans will buy a tablet or smartphone than a PC or laptop this year.

Soon most people will view your website, newsletter or email on the screen in their hand—not the screen on their desk. Are you ready for the smaller screen? Here are some questions to get you thinking.
How's your website look in your hand?

Look critically at your website through an iPhone and an Android phone. (In my opinion, you can skip BlackBerry, since it's not Internet-friendly.) Does your home page “billboard” well on a small screen?

Does a picture capture attention? Pictures really matter. Adding a picture or infographic can generate 94% more views of content. Are your photos too small?

Is the page clean and logically organized? Do you use headlines, subheads, lists and call-outs? Is it easy to navigate on a smaller screen?

Is your copy short and easy to read? Are columns of type too wide to read on a screen—or are the sentences so darn long that you have to shuttle back and forth on a tiny screen to find out where the sentence ends?

Do you have a useful mobile app for your customers? And don't just focus on iPad and iPhone apps. How about Android or Windows? And are you providing enough content to make it worth the download?

How's your video? The fastest-growing mobile Internet traffic is video. In fact, three out of four executives say they watch a business-related video at least once a week.

Does your video get to the point quickly? Because 20% of viewers quit watching in the first 10 seconds. By 60 seconds, you've lost almost half of your audience.

Flash doesn't work on the iPad or iPhone. So are your videos available in HTML 5?

More important, tablet users buy more. They have a higher conversion rate —orders divided by total visits—according to Forrester Research. Retailers report that tablet users place bigger orders, 10% to 20% bigger, than shoppers who use PCs or smartphones.

These are some of the questions that helped Tellabs prepare its content for the mobile Internet. What's your company doing?